On 11/16/06, Gerard Meijssen gerard.meijssen@gmail.com wrote:
The idea that humanity can unite under a single language is not appalling at all to me, rather the opposite. Some people believe this "world language" to be Esperanto, others might think it can be Chinese or English, or a new artificial language. But I don't think Wikimedia should adopt a position that implies humanity should continue to actively use hundreds or thousands of languages indefinitely. To me, supporting multilinguality is first and foremost about breaking down barriers to knowledge, but it's not the only strategy to achieve that.
With all respect, this is the pov of an engineer. The idea of the world to unite under one language does horrify me.
That's perfectly fine, and we can have a debate about the relative merits of our positions. My point, however, is that we should avoid phrases like "in their own language", because they transport an inherent POV about what the correct strategy is to disseminate knowledge. If we can express support for multilinguality in a more neutral fashion, I'd be supportive of it -- such as "breaking down language barriers".